We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

2024 Sun Feb 11

Sermon, Feb. 11, 2024, Last Epiphany – “…He was transfigured. He became fully the person he was created to be.”

Video

A few minutes ago Catherine and I were standing outside and we were talking about preaching on the transfiguration Sunday and  neither one of us could remember anything we’d ever preached before! 

I just remembered a Transfiguration sermon. What I talked about was the fact that they were having this discussion about building tents there so they could stay on the  Mountaintop and the thrust of the sermon was you can never stay there. You have these experiences and then life moves on. That’s actually that’s relevant for today because the theme is about life moving on. It’s changing all the time. None of us here are the same people we were last year, the year before,  20 years ago for some of us. 

The point though is that we’re not the people we used to be. We are different people not necessarily better or worse.

I want to give you a quote from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3:18. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

So what he is saying there is that the whole experience of change is a part of life because we don’t want to be stuck in one place and be  that person. I don’t want to be the person  when I was five or 10 years ago .  I’m happy with life as it as it’s coming along each day now. The idea of being stuck in one place of course is I guess that’s what death is you.

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Videos, Last Sunday after Epiphany, Feb 11, 2024

1. Opening Hymn – “Songs of thankfulness and praise”

2. Hymn of Praise – “All creatures of our God and King”

3. Readings

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Photos, Last Sunday after the Epiphany, Feb. 11, 2024

(full size gallery)

Two special events

This was the last Sunday in Epiphany before Lent begins Wed., Feb 14. For the children (ages 5-9), it was hiding the Alleluia banner. Sunday included finishing the box in the Parish House (see the image), transporting it to the Church, and talking about Lent this week. Last week the banner was hung on the altar. During the last hymn in the service, appropriately, “Alleluia, alleluia give thanks”, it was placed in the box the children made.

For the rest of us, Sunday included donating food for the “Souper Bowl” and hearing a sermon on the Transfiguration. In 1990, a simple prayer: “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat” was delivered to a small youth group at Spring Valley Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC led by Brad Smith, who was serving as a seminary intern at the time. It led to a movement to help those who are food insecure on this day. We made our goal of thirty cans of soup and thirty cards for those who come to the distribution on Wed. Feb 21, 3pm-5pm.

Sunday’s Thoughts, Feb. 11, 2024 – Transition

We are at a transition. Last Sunday, Feb. 4, God’s Garden children completed a banner and hung it on the altar. It is a transition from Epiphany to Lent with a banner first and then a change in the colors on the altar.

So to the trip to the mountain on Feb. 11, the Transfiguration is one too with the individuals involved in the world but at the same time separated. That’s the way it is sometimes going through changes.

Here is a piece that marks the transition- “Transfiguration, Beauty and Biblical Interpretation” by Zoltán Dörnyei

“We come to the Transfiguration at a critical point within salvation history: just a week earlier Peter had declared on behalf of the disciples that Jesus was ―the Messiah, the Son of the living God‖ (Matt 16:16), and from that point onwards Jesus started to talk about his orthcoming suffering, death and resurrection. His teaching also included the warning that if anybody wanted to follow him, they had to ―deny themselves and take up their cross‖ (Matt 16:24) as well as a declaration about his second coming ―in the glory of his Father‖ (Matt 16:27). The preparation stage was now over and the final, climactic phase of Jesus‘ earthly life – involving the last journey to Jerusalem and the Passion – was about to begin. The Transfiguration therefore marks a watershed in Jesus‘ ministry; in Michael Ramsey‘s words, it represents a ―height from which the reader looks down on one side upon the Galilean ministry and on the other side upon the Via Crucis.”

The Sermon from Tom Hughes spoke of a transition and where we should be going. “The whole idea is that in Christ we’re always becoming called to things as they were not before becoming a new person. ” On the Transfiguration, ““…He was transfigured. He became fully the person he was created to be.” Unlike Jesus we are not there.

Moving forward, Forward Movement for Feb. 14 includes this phrase – “Ash Wednesday is my favorite holy day because I am reminded that in the nothingness of dust, in God’s value of the inverse of our earthly values. I am filled with the wonder of creation and the reality of the unfailing and unconditional love of God. ” We are still finding that wonder, filling in the spaces, investigating the possibilities and becoming the people we are meant to be. There’s energy in that!

One of the possibilities is continuing our work supporting the larger community. The congregations responded on Sunday for our two outreach projects- 1. The SouperBowl 2. Supporting the Discretionary fund.

The SouperBowl collected 41 cans of food and 33 cards donated plus $75 in monetary donations. This is above last year’s 25 cans. The Disctionary Fund. A total of $270 was collected Feb 11, 2024. “In January, $850 of our discretionary fund helped 9 families with internet access, rent, and electricity.”

Another possibility is continuing to develop our youngest children in God’s Garden. Last week we spotlighted the creation of the Alleluia Banner. This week they added art work to a box and during the last hymn, took the Banner, placed it in the box and hid it away for Lent. They see this transition in life to the beauty that will eventually blossom at Easter.

There is a lot yet to be done

SouperBowl! Feb 11, 2024

Bring a can, or cans, of soup to church on the 11th, along with a Valentine’s Day card wishing the recipient love from St Peter’s to be included in a Village Harvest bag on Wed, February 21st. The goal—thirty cans of soup and thirty cards for those who come to the distribution. Monetary donations to the Village Harvest are always welcome. Write a check to St Peter’s with Village Harvest in the memo line if you wish to donate.

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Voices of the Transfiguration

1.  Transfiguration is transformation. No one and no situation is "untransfigurable" – Dawn Hutchings

In his book, God Has A Dream: A Vision of Home for Our Time, Desmond Tutu tells about a transfiguration experience that he will never forget. It occurred when apartheid was still in full swing. Tutu and other church leaders were preparing for a meeting with the prime minister of South Africa to discuss the troubles that were destroying their nation. They met at a theological college that had closed down because of the white government’s racist policies. During a break from the proceedings, Tutu walked into the college’s garden for some quiet time. In the midst of the garden was a huge wooden cross. As Tutu looked at the barren cross, he realized that it was winter, a time when the grass was pale and dry, a time when almost no one could imagine that in a few short weeks it would be lush, green, and beautiful again. In a few short weeks, the grass and all the surrounding world would be transfigured.  

As the archbishop sat there and pondered that, he obtained a new insight into the power of transfiguration, of God’s ability to transform our world. Tutu concluded that transfiguration means that no one and no situation is “untransfigurable.” The time will eventually come when the whole world will be released from its current bondage and brought to share in the glorious liberty that God intends.

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The Souper Bowl supports the Village Harvest

The Role of Food Insecurity

Year % Food Insecurity
2017 10.2
2018 9.9
2019 9.4
2020 7.7
2021 8.1

The Souper Bowl helps to fund the Village Harvest which is not budgeted but depends on contributions. Harvest fund levels are affected by trends in food insecurity.

The trends of food insecurity have improved over the last few year as a percentage of the population except for the last year (2021) in the table.

That’s the good news we can all appreciate. However, all groups in the community have not shared in this improvement.

Food insecurity is an economic condition driven by several factors, chief among these is a lack of money. Overall, the economy has been positive in these years accounting for downward trend percentage of food insecurity. There is an underlying second issue. Food insecurity is affected by underlying economic and social disadvantages reflecting racial differences.

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From SALT -the “high mountain” at the center of Mark’s Gospel.

Mt. Tabor, one in Israel, one possibility for the Transfiguration story.

“Think of this passage itself as a “high mountain” at the center of Mark’s Gospel. On one side, we climb up through stories of Jesus’ healing, liberating ministry. And on the other side, we’ll descend to the cross. Today, we arrive at a clearing on the mountaintop — and from here we can survey both how far we’ve come and the Lenten journey ahead.

“Epiphany concludes today: Jesus has “shown forth” to be a healer and a liberator; a teacher and a shining prophet. The “unclean spirit” has called him “the Holy One of God;” Peter has called him “the Messiah” (Mark 8:29). But most fundamentally and decisively, he is God’s beloved child. His path of love will lead down into the valley, through the dry cinders of Ash Wednesday and the tears of the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow, all the way to Easter Sunday and the Way of Life.

“Mark’s central point in the Transfiguration story is this: the suffering and death of Jesus may at first appear as an unthinkable, desecrating defeat, but it’s actually a step toward a dramatic, subversive victory. Jesus will now venture into the shadows of death — precisely in order to scatter those shadows once and for all, overcoming them in the end with shimmering light. ”